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Northwoods Baseball: Stingers drop 2 at Waterloo

WATERLOO, Iowa -- The Willmar Stingers' hard luck continued over the weekend, with one-run and two-run losses to the first-place Waterloo Bucks in the Northwoods League's North Division.

On Saturday, the Stingers led by a run in the seventh inning but surrendered it quickly and lost 8-7.

Willmar continues its five-game road trip in Rochester. The two-game series against the Honkers begins today at 7:05 p.m.

On Sunday, the Bucks' four-run fifth erased the Stingers' two-run lead and a Willmar rally in the ninth fell short in an 8-6 loss.

In Sunday's matinee, Willmar jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the second inning, but for the third straight day the Bucks earned a come-from-behind victory at Riverfront Stadium.

The Stingers, now 0-5, got hot early with a four-run second inning. With two on and one out, Karl Sorensen hit a double to left to score Michael Suchy for the first run of the game. After Greg Fettes earned a walk, Brady Anderson brought home Steven Brault from third on an RBI groundout. One batter later, Mitch Rowan ripped a double to left-center field to score Sorensen and Anderson to give the Stingers a 4-0 lead.

Rowan now has three RBIs on the year, all of which have come with two outs.

After Waterloo (5-0) tallied a run in the bottom of the second inning, the Stingers responded immediately with a run in the third thanks to a leadoff single by Forrestt Allday and an RBI base hit by Brault. Brault finished the contest 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for his second-straight three-hit day.

But Waterloo controlled the rest of the game, scoring seven unanswered runs, including a four-run fifth that gave the Bucks the lead for good at 7-5. The Bucks used three straight singles and a walk to fuel the inning that saw eight different hitters come to the plate.

Michael Shreves took the loss for the Stingers, giving up six runs in 4.1 innings, walking three and striking out one.

On Saturday, the Stingers' Steven Brault was 3-for-5 with three RBIs, including a pair of run-scoring doubles. Mitch Rowan, Michael Suchy and Karl Sorensen joined Brault with multi-hit efforts. Suchy added a run scored, while Rowan crossed home plate twice in the contest.